The role of the IBE in the glocalization of civics and peace education: A cross-national study (1933-1969)

• In Event: Not just the usual suspects: 100 years of UNESCO IBE’s shaping global governance of education (Part II)

Proposal

Education has traditionally been used as a vehicle for patriotic ideologies to build national civic identity (Meyer et al., 1997). After World War I, the ambition to enhance global governance and promote peaceful coexistence spread in educational agendas through the early-stage form of what will then be further explored as a subject called ‘Global Citizenship Education’ (GCE), broadening the sense of belonging from one nation to humanity (Torres & Bosio, 2020). Research indicates that globalization has tended to replace patriotic and nationalist discourses that were believed to promote interstate peaceful coexistence (Meyer et al., 1997). However, the International Bureau of Education (IBE) developed the International Yearbook of Education from 1933 to 1969 to compare educational trends, paradoxically leveraging nationalism to foster global governance and peace (Hofstetter & Brylinski, 2023). This paradox reveals how nationalism and globalization can coexist. Drawing on Sassen’s (Sassen, 1999, 2010) work, I argue that civic education turns a national academic subject into a crucial “terrain for the global,” nationalizing the responsibility of global peace and coexistence in the national curriculum. This article further explores the phenomenon of glocalization applied to peace and civic education.
Extensive work has focused on the role of International Organizations (IOs) in promoting peace and increasing global discourse in education policies (Hantzopoulos & Bajaj, 2016). Other research has examined how IOs have contributed to policy borrowing, the rise of so-called good practices globally (Steiner-Khamsi, 2004), and the increase of global governance in education (Mundy & Verger, 2015). However, limited research has explored the relationship between civics and global peace education from a historical and cross-national perspective based on the IBE International Yearbooks of Education. This study examines how IOs have manifested in discourses of global peace and how these discourses have intersected with civic education cross-nationally from 1933 to 1969. The research seeks to answer the following questions:
1. How has the discourse on global peace education and global citizenship evolved in political discourses cross-nationally? How have International Organizations participated in promoting this discourse?
2. How do civic education and global peace education coexist in educational policies?
This work draws on a database consisting of more than 6,000 entries including 2,000+ reforms, 1,100+ civic education initiatives, 650+ multilingual education measures, and 1,500+ peace education occurrences (International Yearbook of Education from 1933 to 1969). I hypothesize that following the World Wars, discourse on peace education increased globally, with a rise in interest in portraying the global. I argue that civic education has been rearticulating the global to promote peace as a multilayered construction of civism before the neoliberal era and the rise of GCE. This study contributes to understanding the role of IBE in shaping civic education and developing national curricula that promote global peace. Civic education serves as a catalyst for national and global ideologies, where priorities converge under global governance. The findings highlight the influence of the IBE in promoting peace education, the intersection of global governance and national interests, and the evolution of civics discourses.

Author

• Camille Fabo, Teachers College Columbia University